How Do you pay for your vacations?

[Mimas]

OT and skimming off the top, just like a lot of other people

 

[AlaskaMOM]

For getting there:
Air miles-and lots of 'em. We do like many others have said , put pretty much everything on cc and pay off monthly. The miles can add up.
For staying there:
we've used savings (but now we're planning on buying DVC)
For tickets:
PFD's (Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend)
For Food & incidentals:
Money from cakes that I make (mostly b-day, but wedding are the most lucrative!)
But as you can see by my sig that this plan hasn't gotten us to the World very often. Hopefully DVC will change that!

 

[mking624]

Every check we get, we put some money into our savings. We always take a vacation every year (one "big" one and one weekend trip) and that's what our savings account is used for. I sell some things on ebay. I also make and sell greeting cards and either sell them on ebay or take orders for them and make money that way.

 

[skiwee1]

My husband pays for my trips! I put whatever I need on the CC and he pays it off each month.

 

[DVCLiz]

Obviously, I am missing something. How does college financial aid turn into a trip to Disney? Don't you have to account for it with a Financial Aid office???

 

[Goobergal99]

My college always mailed a check of the remaining balance after the tuition was covered. It could be different in other places. but thats how my college did it.

 

[DisneyObsessive]

well i can speak for myself, for scholarships i get paid directly, not my school. the only thing my school gets paid is "aid" like TAP. But for scholarship money, they send the check to me and i put it in my savings account, and then pay the school myself. I have more money coming to me than my school costs, so i always have money left over. This year im planning to use it for vacation, still waiting on thecheck to be sent though.

 

[Renate_do]

Hi,

we mainly use our tax refund but now I started to tranfer the money from a shopping card and 10% of the money we earn by giving dance lessons to a AMEX debit card in $. Save the money from bringing back bottles and the difference between the normal and the reduced price on groceries.
Additionally I save all the change that are from other countries in a special jar. (The back from the €coins are different in each country)

Greets Renate

 

[stahshee]

I am STILL in college and I do use my left over finical aid for my trip! I also use our reguular income. We do not use any credit for any thing so we just plan according

 

[powellrj]

we use our flexable spending accounts at work. We just pay for the services and save our reciepts and send them in twice a year. That is what pays for vacation in the summer and christmas in the winter. We also get expense checks twice a month and I use that money for spending money for our trips!

 

[disneysteve]

Obviously, I am missing something. How does college financial aid turn into a trip to Disney? Don't you have to account for it with a Financial Aid office???

Its a been a while since I finished school, but no, I never had to account for financial aid. I used mine to pay tuition, but also to pay living expenses - rent, food, gas, books, etc.

 

[adisneymama]

We paid for this trip using DH's travel reimbursements. He drives 87 miles/each way to work and is reimbursed weekly! It has paid for the hotel/tickets, airfare and spending money and we got in on the free dining plan. We are paid in full and can't wait to go!

 

[Renate_do]

When we went in '93, my dad had passed away and mom decided we all needed a pick me up trip (he had been sick awhile ) So we used some insurance money and stayed 10 nights at the Poly over 4th of July with a lagoon view of the castle.

In 01' My pop-pop passed away and we were very close (he raised me in fact after my DF passed on) He left me money so we went again because we needed some pick me ups

In 04' we used money from my mom's husband dying (they were seperated and he refused to divorce her ) so she got the insurance money, he was a real jerk off and he died on my mom and dads anniversary (ironically enough) Oh and also my uncle sent me money for college graduation so we used some of that too..

Sorry to be a little bit sarcastic but there had a lot people pass away for your WDW-trips.

Sorry could not resist.

Greets Renate

 

[beattyfamily]

First trip in 1998, all charged!

Next trip and subsequent trips starting in 2000, we put aside $200 per month toward our vacations (still not enough $$), save all spare change, any 'extra' income (rewards, garage sales, rebates), now we also use the Disney Visa Rewards as well, then we make up the difference of what we need with our tax refund.

Trip is paid off as much as possible before trip; then paid off in full (using the Disney Visa while there and earn more rewards) upon our return with our vacation savings.

I have a spreadsheet in Excel that helps me figure out how much the trip will cost and how much I'll need.

It's worked very well for the past 6 trips. All paid in full within a week of our return.

 

[Miss Kelly]

I've used my Financial Aid Refund for vacations too. Unfortunately, lately they have been going to pay off any credit card debt I've accumulated throughout the year or to pay on my new computer.

 

[kfeuer]

Usually, it's a combination of:

Tax Refund
Gifts from our generous parents
DH gets $50 or $100 sales bonuses fairly often, I always save those for Disney
Survey money
Ebay Sales
Sometimes yard sale money
Visa reward dollars
Gift certs from doing test drives
Gift cards from Mypoints (I always get prepaid gas cards since we drive down)

We're on a tight budget so vacations have to come from "extra money", we can't afford to budget for it. Somehow we make it happen, though!

 

[we3disneygo]

our next trip is in 2006, we started saving last year, we are a 1 income family with dh in retail not much extra $$ floating around our house. we save change, cash it in and go get disney dollars, save cans, same thing. any extra valentines day, easter, birthday money goes to disney dollars, we have our park hoppers paid for. and now saving for our meals and spending money. hotel, air will be paid with tax return next year.(unless something happens-)

 

[4theloveofdisney]

We use our income tax refunds. I also have the Disney Visa and I put anything on it that would normally pay cash for. Then I just pay off the balance when I receive my card. We also save change and put it in a glass vase. I also never pay rack rate anymore. If I can't find a good code or deal, then we rent DVC points for our lodging. Lastly, I have sold a few things on E-Bay. Being a SAHM, I have the time to tinker with E-Bay. We don't get to stay for more than a week as DH can't get the time off but we usually go for 7 to 9 days.

 

[DsnyDrmr]

I like to have fun when i vacation and i spend a lot when we are in Florida, I never use any of my paycheck to pay for the trip. When i was in college i used my financial aid -what was left over to go to disney. NOw i still find ways without using my check, I save my change in a mop bucket, and i mystery shop, it is fun and you can pull between 0-1000.00 depending on how much time you put into it-maybe more. Since we go to disney every other year we are able to save up quite a bit of change but because we stay there almost the entire month, the money does go fast. Anyway, this is what i use to buy tickets, cruise, villas, etc... does anyone else have any unique or normal ways they pay off their vacations?

What is Mystery Shopping? Is it a regular job? You mean I could paid to go shopping--my DH would die!! That would be so funny--see ya, hon, I'm off to 'work'

 

[Goobergal99]

Sorry to be a little bit sarcastic but there had a lot people pass away for your WDW-trips.

Sorry could not resist.

Greets Renate

No offense taken, We know it's actually sort of a joke in my family. Maybe it's just our own little conspiracy Watch out you could be next Ha! Ha!